The present invention relates to a disinfecting composition in aqueous solution especially suitable for the treatment of livestock buildings during the so-called "cleanout" periods which separate each group of animals.
There are currently a large number of disinfecting compositions on the market which are intended for the cleaning of buildings associated with industrial livestock rearing.
In order to be satisfactory, such compositions must of course have a pronounced disinfecting activity, that is to say, a bactericidal, virucidal and fungicidal action; they must also be chemically degradable or biodegradable, and they must be non-toxic and exhibit low corrosiveness.
In order to meet these various criteria, the publication FR-A-87 15 212 has already proposed a composition comprising, by weight, from 3 to 35% of quaternary ammonium salts, from 1 to 20% of straight-chain dialdehyde, especially glutaraldehyde, and from 1 to 15% of ethoxylated fatty alcohols.
In use, that composition has been found to be especially active, easy to eliminate, and to pose no danger to public health.
The bactericidal, virucidal and fungicidal qualities of quaternary ammonium compounds and glutaraldehyde have been well known for a long time.
In the above-mentioned disinfecting composition, the fatty alcohols act as wetting agents and solubilisers capable of improving the "stability" of the solution and permitting an increase in the proportion of active products.
The combination of quaternary ammonium salts, glutaraldehyde and ethoxylated fatty alcohols therefore makes it possible to obtain, in aqueous solution, very concentrated disinfecting compositions having a very broad spectrum of disinfecting activity and having, especially, a very pronounced virucidal activity owing to the excellent surfactant activity of the quaternary ammonium compounds.
By way of example, the following composition has been found to be especially active:
______________________________________ Didecyldimethylammonium chloride 18.75 g Dioctyldimethylammonium chloride 18.75 g Octyldecyldimethylammonium chloride 37.50 g Alkyl (C14 50% - C12 40% - C16 10%) 50 g dimethylbenzylammonium chloride Glutaraldehyde 62.50 g Terpineol 20 g Pine oil 20 g Ethoxylated fatty alcohol having 40 g 10 moles of ethylene oxide and 90% of active substances Angelica green colorant (E 131 + E 104) 1 g Water q.s. 1 litre ______________________________________
Despite its undoubted advantage, this disinfecting composition has the disadvantage of having no insecticidal action and therefore of having to be combined with a supplementary treatment using an insecticidal product in order to obtain a complete sanitary "process".
Those operations constitute an economic and material constraint (number of operations, exposure of personnel, lengthening of "cleanout" periods in the livestock buildings, . . . ).
Consequently, and despite manufacturers' recommendations, users are sometimes tempted to mix, in the course of the same treatment, disinfecting agents having no insecticidal action and insecticidal agents having no bactericidal or virucidal power. The mixtures so produced, however, bring together substances which are not necessarily compatible with one another and may even cause poisoning accidents.
In addition, studies which enable manufacturers to determine the efficacy of their product do not take systematic account of the interactions which may occur when the products are associated with another agent and cannot ensure that the products so mixed preserve their activity and their chemical stability.
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide a polyvalent agent that efficiently combines disinfecting (bactericidal, virucidal and fungicidal) properties with insecticidal properties.
Despite this apparent need, it has not been possible hitherto to combine the necessary active substances in a stable water-miscible form at suitable concentrations enabling the efficacy indispensable for a single useful dose to be obtained.
The object of the present invention is to fill this gap by proposing a composition suitable for the treatment of livestock buildings which is chemically stable while having a high degree of both insecticidal and bactericidal, virucidal and fungicidal efficacy and which is at the same time non-toxic in respect of the use for which it is intended and which exhibits low corrosiveness towards the materials exposed to it (especially metals).